GigaOM

This morning’s Wall Street Journal has an extensive report on challenges facing Google when it comes to advertising, especially with its YouTube division. If anything, the article paints a rather sympathetic view of Google and its money machine. I am surprised by the timing of this story. After all, these problems are quite well known and have been subject of many tomes.

I wonder if this story and Google’s challenges are meant to portray the search-and-online advertising giant as an underdog and win it some sympathy from regulators as it goes in to get its advertising deal with Yahoo approved. As a great counterpoint to the WSJ report, I urge you to read this spectacular and refreshingly honest editorial by Richard Bennett in today’s San Francisco Chronicle. Bennett correctly points out that Google is using the Net Neutrality debate to divert attention from the real issue of how it is going to become the tyrant of online advertising. Continue Reading

While we laggards in the U.S. are still celebrating the FCC decision to (finally!) up the classification of broadband speeds to a lazy 768 kilobytes per second (but, hey, that’s up from 200 kilobytes per second) and lamenting our coming bandwidth caps, the Brits are prepping for a broadband boom.

The UK regulatory agency Ofcom is planning to release a regulatory framework in September to guarantee a financial rate of return on fiber rollouts in the UK. According to a story in PCAdvisor, Ofcom Chief Executive Ed Richards said at a conference that there had been a “step change” toward the idea of investing in fiber.

“Ofcom favours a regulatory environment for the next generation of networks and access that both allows and encourages operators to make risky investments, to innovate for the benefit of consumers and, if the risks pay off, for the benefit of their shareholders too.” Continue Reading

Remember back in the Dark Ages before text messaging, when a teenager (let’s call him Jerry Yang) might get a best friend (maybe call him Carl Icahn) to call another friend (say, Steve Ballmer) using three-way calling? With Yang sitting silently on the line, the goal would be for Icahn to goad Ballmer into saying how he really felt about Yang. Well, now that we’re adults, and billions of dollars are on the line, all this is done via proxy battles as is the case with the aborted deal for Microsoft, headed by Ballmer, to buy Yahoo, which is headed by Yang.

The whole thing just gets more and more dramatic — the lack of teen girls notwithstanding. Today, Carl Icahn, who holds a large stake in Yahoo, released a letter to Yahoo shareholders where he says he has spent, like, HOURS on the phone with Ballmer, who was still totally interested in Yahoo. But Ballmer’s, like, so worried that Yang and current Yahoo management might “mismanage” the company during the time it takes to get a deal done (because The Federal Trade Commission can take FOREVER, ya know?) Continue Reading

Update: I finally got home this morning and am now catching up on comments and emails. Lots of interesting comments about this post. Robert Scoble pointed to comments by Paul Buchheit on FriendFeed, where he has done some verbal gymnastics defending what Allen had reported and disagreeing with what I wrote. Of course, there are many who disagree with me, though it’s hard to argue with the fact that the word friends doesn’t mean what it used to mean. Thanks Russ, for pointing that out, even if it seemed obvious.  

Original post follows: Continue Reading

While pop stars’ fortunes these days are heavily dependent on building an online fan base, the reverse is even more true. Social media sites are tripping over themselves to score the one celebrity who will shower them with rabid fans.

I’m surprised to see how often the words “The Jonas Brothers” show up in my inbox. And no, it’s not because I’m signed up for their fan club alerts or anything like that. It’s because these guys are huge. Their magical combination of luscious locks and mediocre crooning have captured the hearts of young ladies everywhere. And outside of their day jobs as Hanson 2.0, they’re also the poster children for any number of social media services.

The first time I heard about the band was last October, when Justin.tv told me the brothers were by far their most popular users, helping the startup to secure venture funding from Alsop Louie. As I noted then: “Up-and-coming band the Jonas Brothers has been the biggest hit to date, with 80,000 uniques and a maximum of 14,000 simultaneous viewers turning in for a live chat last week.”

Continue Reading

You know the joke about Microsoft — they normally get things almost right on the third try. After failing miserably to get Yahoo in two initial attempts thus far, Steve Ballmer and Co. might be returning for yet another try, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Indeed, two weeks ago, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer called Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock to suggest they meet to discuss a new idea involving other partners, according to a person familiar with the matter…Yahoo remains skeptical about the viability of a deal that would break out its core search business. But the company remains open to discussing any proposal from Microsoft, people close to the company said.

This time they are looking to team up with News Corp. and Time Warner and bid for Yahoo, and essentially carve it up. That said, the whole story is full of caveats. Continue Reading